Abstract

Background: The morphology of ostrich skeleton was meager rather than fowl for which already a lot of literature is available. This work attempts to present different views of skull bones of ostrich. Materials and Methods: The present research was carried out on ten heads of adult ostriches. The obtained heads were collected from different ostrich slaughtered houses at Alexandria. The preparations of bones were performed by maceration technique. Two head was radiographed at Surgery Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University. Results: Ostrich skull consists of two parts; neurocranium and splanchnocranium which are separated by two large orbital cavities. Neurocranium is composed of single bones (occipital, sphenoid, ethmoidal) and paired (temporal, parietal and frontal) bones. The splanchnocranium consists of single bones (mandible, vomer and hyoid bones) and paired (quadrate, lacrimal, nasal bone, premaxilla, maxilla, Zygomatic (jugal), palatine bone and pterygoid) bones. Conclusion: A significant result was obtained in this work that, there are variations in shape and components of ostrich skull bones in comparison with other birds. The similarity to small domestic birds was almost near to duck and geese rather than fowl and pigeon skulls. Also, there are some variations with large birds like an emu.

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